Ahhh, the movie trailer. It’s almost a lost art form; it seems as we now live in an age in which films are marketed with such ferocity that by the time we see the finished product we feel like we’ve seen the whole film already. Now we can relive the glory (and gory) days of a time when films didn’t cost the earth but were advertised so much bigger.

Trailer collections in the past have usually been made up of scratchy public domain materials that don’t look any better than you’d find on YouTube. However, this set from Australia’s Umbrella Entertainment is in glorious HD and contains some really rare gems that will keep you viewing for hours. Six of them to be precise.

Split into two parts, rather naturally the ‘60s and ‘70s, the collection takes in such genuine classics such as Peeping Tom, Barbarella, The Hills Have Eyes, Mad Max, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture as well as the obligatory Hammer pictures. There are some fantastic curios, though, like Code 7 Victim 5, Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth, Jennifer and the incredibly creepy What the Peeper Saw, which was also released as Night Child, and stars Mark Lester (yes, Oliver himself) and Britt Ekland as a boy and his step mother who have a rather suspect relationship. It’s fascinating watching the development of the selling of these movies, particularly if you compare them to the flashy trailers we see today. The gritty – and quite often grimy – nature of the films is never underplayed and but it’s still shocking to see how much explicit material made it through to these few minutes of promotional material. Full frontal nudity, gore and violence as well as large plot points are often front and centre, but it still makes one want to see the movies – even today. We’re lucky that we don’t have to wait for these flicks to turn up at our local fleapit now; many have been released in lavish Blu-ray versions of their own and are readily available. It’s still great to sit through the collection, though, and try to imagine what an audience would have thought at the time. No wonder cinemas were doing great business until the video industry took over.

Although only available as an import, this Umbrella Blu-ray release is region free and will provide hours of entertainment.

DRIVE-IN DELIRIUM – ‘60S AND ‘70S SAVAGERY / CERT: TBC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW